Bad Throw Has Indians Reeling, 7-4

Sure, there was a runner blocking the way, but the throw was terrible. And away the ball went, rolling toward the outfield to score the winning run.

With it might have gone the Cleveland Indians’ chances to repeat as American League champions.

Downcast yet defiant, the Indians trail Baltimore, two games to none, in their best-of-five division series after a 7-4 loss Wednesday at Camden Yards.

The Indians, who won 99 games in the regular season, need a sweep starting with Game 3 on Friday at Jacobs Field to advance to the American League championship series.

Can they do it?

“You bet,” Cleveland Manager Mike Hargrove said.

That seemed like wishful thinking after Wednesday’s belly-flop.

Cheered by a record crowd of 48,970, the Orioles made all the plays and got the big hits and the necessary pitching to subdue the Indians for the second consecutive day.

Starter Scott Erickson and three relievers pitched effectively. Cal Ripken Jr. made two outstanding plays at shortstop. And Brady Anderson hit his second home run of the series, a bases-empty shot that highlighted a three-run fifth inning.

Cleveland simply got it all wrong.

Nothing was worse than a botched double-play opportunity that would have helped get the Indians out of a bases-loaded jam with the score tied, 4-4, in the eighth inning.

With none out, B.J. Surhoff hit a chopper to Cleveland reliever Paul Assenmacher, who tossed the ball to catcher Sandy Alomar for a force out at home.

But with Surhoff running just inside the first-base line, Alomar uncorked a wild throw that skipped past first baseman Jeff Kent.

Ripken raced home from second base to score the go-ahead run, and Eddie Murray moved from first to third.

The Orioles went on to score twice more in the eighth to take a 7-4 lead. Randy Myers pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the save. And the Indians were left to ponder what had happened in the eighth.

Actually, they knew precisely how Game 2 turned in the Orioles’ favor and they weren’t happy about it.

Alomar said he couldn’t see Kent and Kent said he couldn’t see Alomar. Surhoff was running inside the line, they said. Surhoff said he had no idea where he was running. TV replays confirmed statements by Alomar and Kent.

“He definitely was blocking my view,” Alomar said. “I tried to aim the throw. I made the decision to throw. Maybe I should have held the ball, but I made the decision to throw it.”

Alomar said he considered simply hitting Surhoff in the back with the throw, but decided against it.

“Usually, when you hit the guy you get the interference call, but I wasn’t going to take the chance,” Alomar said.

Kent, who entered the game as a pinch-runner for starter Kevin Seitzer in the top of the eighth, has spent almost all of his career as a second baseman.

“Surhoff was running inside the line. I think he caused us to botch the play,” Kent said. “It’s a good play on his part. He got away with it.”

Surhoff would admit to nothing.

“[Assenmacher] threw me a fastball and I busted it into the ground,” Surhoff explained. “I knew it was time to bust my butt to first base. I was panicking that it was going to be a double play. Where I was running I don’t know.”

The Indians argued for interference, but to no avail.

“[Surhoff’s] being inside the line has to prevent whoever is covering the bag from catching the ball,” first base umpire Tim Tschida said. “In our judgment, it was simply an errant throw.”

That play overshadowed a credible start from Orel Hershiser and a sixth-inning rally that cut a 4-0 deficit to 4-3 and included Albert Belle’s first hit of the series--a two-run homer against Erickson.

Belle was hitless in six at-bats before the sixth, and that was part of the reason Hargrove huddled the team around him in the dugout before the inning started.

“I felt that for the first four innings we were too tight, especially at the plate,” Hargrove said. “We’ve done that [met during a game] four or five times over the course of the season.”